Valerie’s true story is a gift for any children’s book creator and Lucinda does it perfect justice.
The whole world was transfixed when a little dachshund, escaped a campground on Kangaroo Island and roamed the wilderness for over 500 days before being reunited with her loving owners.
Here in this vividly reimagined verse tale we experience Valerie’s over the top adventures. She falls out of a boat and is rescued by dolphins, rides a surfboard back to land, lives on the beach scavenging from holiday makers adn more. She evades capture as she is not ready to go home – there is so much more to see! She hikes up towers, watches the waves, fishes in rivers and wriggles down caves. But at one point she realises she is missing her family and begins the long trek back home.
It’s hard to imagine a pampered sausage dog surviving in the wild but Valerie managed it easily, something vividly captured in Lucinda’s lively and expressive illustrations. We are all fascinated by her escapades (as we were with the real Valerie) and enjoy reading about her adventures. This book is a perfect companion to Cynthia is a Wild Dogby Tohby Riddle, a very different story of another pampered pooch.
Lucinda, born in Scotland now working in Melbourne has illustrated over 40 books, ten of which she has also written, samples include Too Many Dogs, Grandma Murphy’s Pussycat and The Best Present Ever.
